Editing George Bernard Shaw (section)

===1930s===
{{quote box|width=300px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=left|quote="We the undersigned are recent visitors to the USSR&nbsp;... We desire to record that we saw nowhere evidence of economic slavery, privation, unemployment and cynical despair of betterment.&nbsp;... Everywhere we saw [a] hopeful and enthusiastic working-class&nbsp;... setting an example of industry and conduct which would greatly enrich us if our systems supplied our workers with any incentive to follow it."|salign=left|source= Letter to ''The Manchester Guardian'', 2 March 1933, signed by Shaw and 20 others.{{sfn|Shaw et al.: "Social Conditions in Russia", 2 March 1933}}}}
Shaw's enthusiasm for the [[Soviet Union]] dated to the early 1920s when he had hailed [[Lenin]] as "the one really interesting statesman in Europe".{{sfn|Holroyd|1993|p=226}} Having turned down several chances to visit, in 1931 he joined a party led by [[Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor|Nancy Astor]].{{sfn|Holroyd|1993|pp=233–234}} The carefully managed trip culminated in a lengthy meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], whom Shaw later described as "a Georgian<!--Was he referring to Stalin's native Georgian SSR, or to George V? Useful to distinguish.--> gentleman" with no malice in him.{{sfn|Weintraub: "GBS and the Despots", 22 August 2011}} At a dinner given in his honour, Shaw told the gathering: "I have seen all the 'terrors' and I was terribly pleased by them".{{sfn|Nestruck|2011}} In March 1933, he was a co-signatory to a letter in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' protesting at the continuing misrepresentation of Soviet achievements: "No lie is too fantastic, no slander is too stale&nbsp;... for employment by the more reckless elements of the British press."{{sfn|Shaw et al.: "Social Conditions in Russia", 2 March 1933}}

Shaw's admiration for Mussolini and Stalin demonstrated his growing belief that dictatorship was the only viable political arrangement. When the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in Germany in January 1933, Shaw described [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] as "a very remarkable man, a very able man",{{sfn|Geduld|1961|pp=11–12}} and professed himself proud to be the only writer in England who was "scrupulously polite and just to Hitler";{{sfn|Holroyd|1993|p=421}}{{refn|Shaw was not alone in being initially deceived by Hitler. The former British prime minister [[David Lloyd George]] described the Führer in 1936 as "unquestionably a great leader".{{sfn|Holroyd|1993|p=404}} A year later the former Labour Party leader [[George Lansbury]] recorded that Hitler "could listen to reason", and that "Christianity in its purest sense might have a chance with him".{{sfn|Shepherd|2002|p=341}}|group=n}} though his principal admiration was for Stalin, whose regime he championed uncritically throughout the decade.{{sfn|Nestruck|2011}} Shaw saw the 1939 [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] as a triumph for Stalin who, he said, now had Hitler under his thumb.{{sfn|Geduld|1961|pp=15–16}}

Shaw's first play of the decade was ''[[Too True to Be Good]]'', written in 1931 and premiered in [[Boston]] in February 1932. The reception was unenthusiastic. [[Brooks Atkinson]] of ''The New York Times'' commenting that Shaw had "yielded to the impulse to write without having a subject", judged the play a "rambling and indifferently tedious conversation". The correspondent of the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' said that most of the play was "discourse, unbelievably long lectures" and that although the audience enjoyed the play it was bewildered by it.{{sfn|''The Manchester Guardian'', 2 March 1932|p=12}}

[[File:George Bernard Shaw 1936.jpg|thumb|Shaw in 1936, aged 80]]

During the decade Shaw travelled widely and frequently. Most of his journeys were with Charlotte; she enjoyed voyages on ocean liners, and he found peace to write during the long spells at sea.{{sfn|Laurence|1985|pp=279–282}} Shaw met an enthusiastic welcome in [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]] in 1932, despite his strong remarks about the racial divisions of the country.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=640–642}} In December 1932 the couple embarked on a round-the-world cruise. In March 1933 they arrived at [[San Francisco]], to begin Shaw's first visit to the US. He had earlier refused to go to "that awful country, that uncivilized place", "unfit to govern itself{{space}}... illiberal, superstitious, crude, violent, anarchic and arbitrary".{{sfn|Laurence|1985|pp=279–282}} He visited [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], with which he was unimpressed, and New York, where he lectured to a capacity audience in the [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)|Metropolitan Opera House]].{{sfn|Laurence|1985|p=288}} Harried by the intrusive attentions of the press, Shaw was glad when his ship sailed from [[New York Harbor|New York harbour]].{{sfn|Laurence|1985|p=292}} New Zealand, which he and Charlotte visited the following year, struck him as "the best country I've been in"; he urged its people to be more confident and loosen their dependence on trade with Britain.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=668 and 670}} He used the weeks at sea to complete two plays—''[[The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles]]'' and ''[[The Six of Calais]]''—and begin work on a third, ''[[The Millionairess (play)|The Millionairess]]''.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|p=667}}

Despite his contempt for Hollywood and its aesthetic values, Shaw was enthusiastic about cinema, and in the middle of the decade wrote screenplays for prospective film versions of ''Pygmalion'' and ''Saint Joan''.{{sfn|Laurence|1985|p=285}}{{sfn|Weales|1969|p=80}} The latter was never made, but Shaw entrusted the rights to the former to the unknown [[Gabriel Pascal]], who produced it at [[Pinewood Studios]] in 1938. Shaw was determined that Hollywood should have nothing to do with the film, but was powerless to keep it from winning one [[Academy Award]] ("Oscar"); he described his award for "best-written screenplay" as an insult, coming from such a source.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|p=715}}{{refn|This did not prevent him from putting the award—a golden figurine—on his mantelpiece.{{sfn|Pascal|1971|p=86}} Shaw was one of four to receive the award, along with [[Ian Dalrymple]], [[Cecil Arthur Lewis|Cecil Lewis]] and [[W. P. Lipscomb]], who had also worked on adapting Shaw's text.{{sfn|Burton and Chibnall 2013|p=715}}|group=n}} He became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar.{{sfn|Peters|1998|p=257}} In a 1993 study of the Oscars, [[Anthony Holden]] observes that ''Pygmalion'' was soon spoken of as having "lifted movie-making from illiteracy to literacy".{{sfn|Holden|1993|p=141}}

Shaw's final plays of the 1930s were ''[[Cymbeline Refinished]]'' (1936), ''[[Geneva (play)|Geneva]]'' (1936) and ''[[In Good King Charles's Golden Days]]'' (1939). The first, a fantasy reworking of Shakespeare, made little impression, but the second, a satire on European dictators, attracted more notice, much of it unfavourable.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=718 and 724}} In particular, Shaw's parody of Hitler as "Herr Battler" was considered mild, almost sympathetic.{{sfn|Holroyd|1993|p=404}}{{sfn|Geduld|1961|pp=15–16}} The third play, an historical conversation piece first seen at Malvern, ran briefly in London in May 1940.{{sfn|Evans|1976|p=360}} [[James Agate]] commented that the play contained nothing to which even the most conservative audiences could take exception, and though it was long and lacking in dramatic action only "witless and idle" theatregoers would object.{{sfn|Evans|1976|p=360}} After their first runs none of the three plays were seen again in the West End during Shaw's lifetime.{{sfn|Gaye|1967|pp=1391 and 1406}}

Towards the end of the decade, both Shaws began to suffer ill health. Charlotte was increasingly incapacitated by [[Paget's disease of bone]], and he developed [[pernicious anaemia]]. His treatment, involving injections of concentrated animal liver, was successful, but this breach of his vegetarian creed distressed him and brought down condemnation from militant vegetarians.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=698 and 747}}